OldFashioned Wizardry
by Death Mountain
Summary: Elisabeth Rodriguez, exploring her grandparents' library, finds a book she's never seen before, and asks her grandmother about it. Oneshot


Title: Old-Fashioned Wizardry

Series: Young Wizards

Rating: K

Author: DeathMountain

Disclaimer: I don't own Young Wizards. This is a fic set in the future and implies Kit/Nita.

"I'm bored!" Logan Rodriguez whined, coming up at the heels of his older sister, Elizabeth. He tugged at the hem of her shirt insistently. "I'm bored, Sissy!"

"So go play on the Net, or watch a vid or something." Twelve-year-old Elisabeth did her best to ignore her younger sibling, focusing instead on the bookcase her hands rummaged through. "Leave me alone."

Logan pouted. "You're no fun, Sissy! All you do is look at books."

"I like books! Almost nobody has a library of hard copies in their home anymore, not like Gram and Pop." She swept her gaze over the dusty tomes. "Go away. Play that MMORPG you like so much."

He blew a loud raspberry at her and scrambled out of the library, his footsteps echoing from down the hall. Elisabeth sighed, breathing in the air of her grandparents' library full of old books from the days before the craze for novels in digital format. People kept the old copies mostly out of sentimentality and reminiscence for the past, but for a good read they turned to their computers.

But Elisabeth loved books—something about the smell of paper; the crack and creak of a book's spine as you opened it; the feel of the pages underneath your fingers; and the sight of inky black letters in all kinds of print; all of this immortalized . . .It enchanted her. What a thrill to sink into an armchair in her grandparents' home, gazing over a book from their vast collection, like diving into the past for just a short time!

_So what if I'm weird? _Let everyone laugh!

She stood on her tiptoes to try and work a book out of its notch. A yelp of surprise escaped her as several others came with it, raining down on her. One of them thumped her in the head on its way down and she protested indignantly. She moved to pick it up off the floor and dusted its cover off. The title jumped out at her and she scratched her head, for she couldn't recall ever seeing it in here before.

"Everything okay in here?" The voice of her grandmother drifted into her room, followed by the woman herself, who was perhaps the opposite of a hobbling, little old woman. Gram and Pop were both exceptionally healthy for their age, and they carried themselves with both the vigor of youth and the dignity of age.

"I'm fine, Gram. Some books fell is all," Elisabeth replied, her eyes still on her newest discovery.

Gram helped her replace the fallen volumes. "Gram, what's this book?" Elisabeth held it out to her.

The aged woman took it and examined it, raising her eyebrows. "Well! I didn't think I'd see this again for a long time." She flipped through it, making sounds of interested amazement.

"Why? What is it?" As soon as it was back in her hands Elisabeth checked for signs of what her Gram found so astounding.

"It's our oldest, most important book. But it only shows up when it needs a new reader. Otherwise, it can't be found."

"What? Like a magic book or something?"

"Sort of. You'll see when you read it."

Elisabeth shook her head. "That's crazy. What's it about?"

Gram smiled. "Wizardry. And a language that everything understands, and understands everything."

"Giga! Like people who can talk to animals?"

"Not just animals, anything. Why don't you take some time to read it? I'd go outside, if I were you—it's a beautiful day." Her eyes twinkled.

Elisabeth's face lit up. "Okay! I think I'll start now. Thanks, Gram!"

"Oh, and Elisabeth." She chuckled. "Always read the fine print before you sign."

Her granddaughter gave her an odd look. "Okay, Gram."

After she disappeared, the esteemed grandparent collapsed into a chair, sighing. "If she's the answer, I wonder what the question is?" Nita Callahan Rodriguez wondered.

Her lips moved and she stuck her arm out, plucking an old leather-bound book seemingly out of thin air. She opened it to a marked page and spoke. "Mark the last recorded dream as 'closed.'" Then she sat back with a grin. "I wonder what Bran will say when I tell him his daughter has been chosen to be a wizard?"

_But she'll do fine. It's in the blood, after all._

Outside, everything held still, as a girl spoke to a world that bent in to listen.

If you are confused, Elisabeth is Nita and Kit's granddaughter. "Bran" is their son.

For those of you waiting on "Naming in the Speech" . . .it is going through some major planning and plot revision. I actually know what I want to do with it now, so please be patient.


End file.
